The Week in Vocab

Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to royal celebrations, government bans, acclaimed sci-fi writers and more. Each week, we highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

nanny state (noun) — a term that shows a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering too much with personal choice.

Why it matters? People who oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s big soda ban accuse him of running a nanny state, with some people even calling him Nanny Bloomberg.

extremist (noun) — a person with very specific and extreme beliefs far away from typical ones, generally related to politics

Why it matters? Lady Gaga had to cancel her concert in Indonesia after receiving threats from Islamic extremists.

jubilee (noun) — the celebration of an anniversary

Why it matters? The Queen of England celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, a festival in honor of her 60th year as Queen.

mainstream (noun / adjective) — a popular trend (n) or belonging to a popular group (adj)

Why it matters? The author Ray Bradbury died this week. Many consider Bradbury the writer responsible for bringing science fiction into the mainstream.

initiative (noun) — a proposal of a new law

Why it matters? Californians have been arguing over an initiative to add an additional $1 tax to cigarettes.

Did you hear any other big terms this week? Share them in the comments!

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